Why the conservative backlash to Amy Coney Barrett is so revealing

Last week, the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, an issue so important to the president that he attended oral arguments in person back in April.

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Despite the court’s conservative majority, the ruling should not have surprised the president — not really. For one thing, his order had been rejected by every lower court that had considered it. Because, as many, many legal scholars had pointed out, it seemed to clearly run counter to the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.

Following oral argument, the consensus among legal scholars was that a majority of justices did not buy the government’s argument. They were correct, as Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion made clear. Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, in 2005, has remained a solidly conservative jurist. But it was Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s vote in favor of the majority which took some court watchers by surprise. And it was also Barrett’s vote which seems to have enraged conservatives in a specific, and perhaps specifically revealing, way.

Following the ruling Trump called on Congress to take action on social media. “Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship.”

Right on cue, his sycophants picked up the chorus. Never mind the inconvenient reality that experts across the political spectrum widely believe the issue settled, or that changing the 14th Amendment would require a supermajority vote in both the House and Senate (or an even less likely constitutional convention), and ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.